There are several well known types of electrical raceway systems which are designed to be placed in a floor. There are, for example, "underfloor" raceways as defined in Article 354 of the National Electrical Code and "cellular metal floor raceways" as defined in Article 356 of the National Electrical Code. The present invention is disclosed in conjunction with an underfloor raceway, but in many of its aspects is applicable to use with other raceway systems designed to be placed in a floor.
Flush floor fittings are typically designed for use in relatively shallow concrete slabs where it is necessary to place the electrical outlets, such as duplex electrical power outlets, facing upward substantially flush with the floor surface, rather than to recess those outlets into a cavity in the floor.
Also, it is common practice to utilize multi-cell ducts carrying both high potential electrical power cables and low potential communication cables or the like. When providing a flush floor fitting for accessing these multiple electrical services, it is desirable to provide dividers within the fitting to isolate the high potential wiring from the low potential wiring.
A typical example of a prior art flush floor fitting designed for use with multi-cell ducts is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,338,484 to Littrell. The Littrell patent utilizes a three cell duct having high potential power cables in the center cell. A flush access unit utilizes a divider plate for isolating the high potential wiring from low potential wiring within the fitting, and provides for the flush mounting of two spaced duplex electrical power outlets separated by low potential outlets.
Also, there are a number of other electrical fitting designs utilizing various dividers for isolating high potential wiring from low potential wiring. Examples are seen in U.S. Pat. No. 4,638,115 to Benscoter; U.S. Pat. No. 4,536,612 to Domigan; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,593,507 to Hartman.
It is also common practice to utilize pivotable cover lids to cover the flush mounted power outlets when they are not in use. Several examples of such pivotable cover lids are seen in U.S. Pat. No. 4,591,656 to Mohr; U.S. Pat. No. 4,443,654 to Flachbarth et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,297,524 to Fork; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,289,921 to Gartner et al.